G7 trade ministers seek critical minerals pact as U.S.-EU tensions rise

G7 trade ministers used their Paris talks to push for a shared critical-minerals strategy that could steady supplies of rare earths, battery materials and chip inputs while reducing dependence on China. The effort carried broad backing in principle, but the ministers also faced a sharper test: whether Washington and Brussels could keep their trade truce from collapsing under new tariff threats.

France, which holds the G7 presidency this year, has made industrial overcapacity, critical minerals, World Trade Organization reform and cross-border e-commerce its four trade priorities. Paris wants the minerals issue to become one of the concrete deliverables of the presidency ahead of the leaders’ summit in mid-June in Evian. One idea under discussion was a permanent secretariat to keep the agenda alive beyond the bloc’s rotating presidencies, a sign that governments worry the work could lose momentum as political cycles turn.

The minerals push matters well beyond mining policy. Rare earths and other strategic inputs sit inside defense equipment, electric vehicle batteries, wind turbines, super magnets, computer chips and modern manufacturing. Governments want more reliable supply chains after years of growing concern that China’s dominance leaves Western industry exposed at the exact moment demand for electrification, rearmament and advanced electronics is rising.

But the Paris meeting was immediately complicated by Donald Trump’s warning that the United States would raise tariffs on EU-made cars to 25% from 15% if Brussels did not comply with the trade deal struck in Turnberry, Scotland, last year. The United States and European Union agreed last summer to cap tariffs on European vehicles and car parts at 15%, below the 25% duty Trump imposed on many other trading partners. EU lawmakers gave the deal a first green light in March 2026, but member states still need to approve it.

That dispute cut directly into the G7’s effort to project economic solidarity. Maros Sefcovic said he and Jamieson Greer discussed the Turnberry agreement in Paris and that both sides needed to deliver on what was promised in Scotland. Katherina Reiche said she was in intensive talks with U.S. officials over the tariff issue. Greer, the U.S. trade representative, said Washington views trade policy primarily as domestic policy, even as he described France’s G7 priorities as complementary to U.S. efforts.

The meeting also unfolded against wider instability in the Middle East, where disruption around the Strait of Hormuz has added pressure to energy markets and global supply lines. For Europe’s auto industry, already squeezed by weaker demand in China, slower global growth and higher input and labor costs, another tariff escalation would deepen the strain. The Paris talks underscored a larger question for the West: whether national-security cooperation can survive the return of protectionist trade politics long enough to secure the minerals that power EVs, chips and defense supply chains.